Raymond H. Wilkins
United States Air Force Medal of Honor recipient (1917–1943)
Raymond Harrell Wilkins (September 28, 1917 – November 2, 1943) was a United States Army Air Forces officer and posthumous recipient of the United States military's highest decoration—the Medal of Honor—for his actions in World War II.
Biography
Wilkins was born in Portsmouth, Virginia to William Samuel and Florida Alverta Harrell Wilkins of Columbia, North Carolina. The family returned to Columbia when Wilkins was two years old. Wilkins grew up in Columbia and attended school there, graduating from high school in 1934. Wilkins entered the University of North Carolina in September, 1934. He was registered as a pharmacy major, with the intent of going to medical school.
Military career and death
In 1936 Wilkins left UNC and enlisted as a private in the United States Army Air Corps. Serving at Langley Field, Virginia, Wilkins rose to the rank of staff sergeant.
He entered the Cadet Training Corps at Smith Air College, St. Louis before being transferred to Kelly Field, Texas, where he served as a Cadet Corps captain. Wilkins received his pilot's wings on October 31, 1941 and was commissioned a second lieutenant.
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This entry incorporates text from “Raymond H. Wilkins” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.